Oh! My Gosh!!!! Those are pix of famous shop!!! Yes! The goblets were dear ol' dad's creation! In fact he was the first one that started decorating with nets and driftwood (I had to explain what driftwood was to great-grandkids the other day!) His first big sale was to I magnin's for their summer windows!!
The horses were all made of driftwood..legs, body, head! The rest was rope.. but not just any rope.. it had to be used fishing rope to have that certain color! We used to scour the fishing docks in San Pedro for old rope, old fishing nets, old corks! To this day, I can still smell the wonderful smell of them!! (not fishy!) Tar?

Let me tell you about our dining room! Since daddy built the house hiself (with us!) his plans kept changing around.. and they would always change towards more beauty..like.. "If we put this over here we would be able to see the sunset over the ocean better! So the house was kind of odd! The dining room was built upstairs on a balcony which over looked the entry hall, which was supposed to be the kitchen.. but the kitchen was moved to the side where the laundry room was supposed to be. The laundry room was put out side.. a big tin tub over a fire!! That is until San Pedro got its first laundromat!! Heavenly Days! But daddy made everthing FUN.. so I really thought that gathering wood, building a fire, getting water into the big tin tub, getting the clothes into it and swishing them around with a big stick was FUN!! And then, I got to rinse them, and hang them up!!
I digressed! Our dining room table was made of 3.. 1 X 12 planks (found in our favorite Cove!) about 12 ' long. The legs were great big ships anchors, one on each end, that Eli got from a navy salvage store.The chairs he made from barrels with the backs being small wooden ships wheels.. all polished and stained and shining. They weighed about 50# each.. and anytime we had a gentleman over for supper, he would always try to seat one of us.. and we would wait, with anticipated joy.. to watch the expression on his face!! They were always good sports!
We had a ships wheel candlelabra over the table and eventually daddy built us a ship's wheel on a pully, where we could put all the dishes and food on it down below in the kitchen, and then run up the stairs and haul it up to the table! I thought that was pretty modern.

The living room was also upsatirs and had actual 1940's rattan Hawaiian print furniture.Like the ones that are so popular now!. also a couple of those palm/leather chairs from mexico, and a barrel desk.. we had 2, one with the full barrel, that opened and closed on hinges. The top had little shelves and cubbyholes, and the bottom opened up to store my school books.. these were working pieces of furniture! The half barrel had a desk on top of the half, and it opened for storage..
There was a 5 gallon "ship in the bottle" light. it had 2 ships, a light house, an island, a ship's bouy with a light that blinked. This was made by an old German sea salt, Captain Staves, who made them all by hand. He had his shop in his garage.. and we had many of his "ships" at one time or another.
Between the living and dining room was a 3 sided fireplace made from rocks we had hauled up from the beach. We tried to get rocks with holes in them so they wouldn't pop, but we failed in that endeavor and when we had company (which was a lot!) all of a sudden one would pop right out into the living room, and we'd jump up and grab the hot little piece and throw it back into the fire, sit down again and continue our conversation. You see, that was normal for us!!
Sometimes the living room would be full of guests and the wind would shift and start coming directly down into the big ship's funnel that was our chimney.. the living room would start filling with smoke, and Mother would say, "Let's all get our coats on and go out and watch the moon come up over the cliff!" She never admited to the smoke! Then daddy would get one of us aside and say, "Quick! Change the dang funnel!" So, whoever dashed out the door, ran around the house, climbed up the cliff that the house sat directly on, climbed onto the roof, and up to the funnel, grab it with both arms and twist it around so the wind was behind it, while someone else was busy opening windows and clearing the room of smoke! it took me a few years to realize that not everyone had to do this.. they had real chimneys!

Whew! I'm long winded!!! See ya around again soon!
Auntie Bungy (just like they call us in Hawaii!)

That was great! Your stories are wonderful! My parents were in the restaurant business,You can imagine the crazy stuff that went on. But my mom would not tell everyone her stories because people thought she made it up. My mother and father are gone now and so are some of thier stories. I miss hearing them, So your stories help fill that gap. Thank you very much!

Hi Again Aunt Bungy, Your atory time is a true journey to SWiss Family Robinson Adventureland. I am enjoying every page and every word. Your home must have been such a Fantastic place, full of adventure and excitement. How Fortunate you are to have such great memories to cherish and share.
HappyHappyHappy
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WOW how totally cool - the house you grew up in sounds like my dream house! Ben or Bungy - you wouldn't happen to have any pictures to share would you? That place sounds like HEAVEN
Thanks for sharing!
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Utterly wonderful; just remarkable to hear about life with Eli in detail, Bungee. Thank you.. More, More! Many of us have dreamed of a life such as the Hedleys really lived, breathed, and led...I wonder if there is a place, somewhere on Earth, where this is possible now? And I really can't think of a better steward of this legacy than Ben. Ben rewrites the book on hard work, love of the sea and mastery of the tiki aesthetic. Example. That's Ben in a nutshell..

Aloha! wonderful ohana! alias Tiki Aficionadas!
re: Shop in Hollywood!
If you look at pix you'll see used fising nets draped over from the roof; a string of used corks anchors, ships wheels (over the largest is a board that says (in rope letters) Trade Winds Trading Company. The 959 on rt is also done in rope (has to be used and pretty!); authentic, hand blown used fising floats that we could actually pick up on the beaches of N. California, and Oregon, on beachcombing trips.. where we camped out.. that was when the beaches belonged to everyone.. and one could build campfires anywhere!
Horses: I got so excited about the pix, that I described later made horses to my darling nephew! These were Eli's first creations.. they were "packing" barrels.. pretty thin wood with wire stays, nails came in smaller ones, and bigger ones were used to transport all kinds of things; frayed rope for manes, shells for eyes, driftwood "pack saddles" for portable bars, poolside bars; and deer horns, esp., around Christmas!! When he could get them.

Right next door, Igor Stravinski's wife, Madame Stravenski, had a shop.. I think it was antiques.. and she would give us kids bon bons occasionally! Every once in a while, the maestro would appear, with his flying white hair,and waving, gesticulating arms. I would hide around a corner and peek out, he was so awsome!

Right across the street, Elsa Lancaster, who was married to Charles Laughton, had a children's theater called "The Turn-a-bout Theater". She did Saturday afternoon puppet shows for children, and I got to go several times. You all sat looking at a large puppet stage at one end of room.. then, intermission, we all turned our chairs aorund and saw the 2nd half at the other end,, different set!

Our shop, itself was 3 large rooms. The first entry room was all nautical, with ships wheels, ropes, oars, fish floats of all sizes, great ships paintings, etc.
The second was my favorite. It was the Tropical room, with auhtentic hand carved preWW2 tikis of all sizes; great, large wooden war masks ; tapas from all over the South Seas; woven mats of all shapes and sizes, and a great pile of fishing net, that I used to lean against to do my homework whenever I got to go there after school. Huge packing crates would arrive, and I'd get so excited, because they were coming in from Ne wGuinea, or Fiji, or? , and we'd get crow bars, and the delicious smell of adventure filled the room when the top finally came off.. in them were all the treasures foudn and bought from the islanders.. by an importer named Drumgold. Daddy bought some, and was the agent on other "stuff". Movie stars were always wandering through, and stopping to chat! Like; Ronald Reagan and jane Wyman, Mickey Rooney, and loads more. There is a guest sign in book somewhere in the family!

the third room was a huge work shop, where all the beauty was turned out. One time, we had an open house, and refreshments were served in the work shop.. naturally it had been decorated tropicl! Daddy had built this huge mound of crushed ice with melon balls, pineapple spears, etc. How did he become the "Tropical" Decorator he was , when he had never been to Hawaii!!!
Bamboo Ben has certainly taken off where dear ol' dad left off!! His shop is so much fun to go into! It's 959 La Cienega.. only smaller!!

WOW, I have a huge shopping list after wandering through your shop! Do you take credit cards or Bank Cards?
I can see why Ben is such a Special person, he comes by it hosestly.
Thanks again Aunt Bungy.
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I'll try to dig up some pics and post em in the next few daze. I have a one page copy of some sigs. that my Mom said was from the "Luau" guest book but maybe it was from the store instead?. The "Luau" gift shop came later right? My Mom doesn't remember a whole lot as she was down at the Cove playing with her pet pelican, Abraham and "sunning" in the giant mounds of fish netting.( she still does that today but without the net)

My scanner has a mind of it's own so some of the pics might be taken from my camera so bear with me.

p.s. Auntie Bungy, no more praises towards me. This is about you and your experiences. Sorry but I have to put my foot down. We want to hear about You! and Malcom, Eli, Flo, Mare and Ba (my mom, of course).

I can't wait to hear story about all the cool Luaus that happened at the Cove and the people who came to them and the people who just came to get away from Hollywood. I have a great photo of Eli, Mare and my Mom at one luau that I'll try to post.

You know what would be radically cool, if one day, you 3 sisters could meet at the Cove and kinda do a tour for these people here on TC. Just a thought. I'm sure a lot of them would dig it the most.
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